Sensible chap. Spurning the pollution risks of Britain’s south coast waters, in favour of a sizzling summer season Bite-Sized Book.
As usual, we’ve an eclectic mix of new books for you.
We have a fascinating re-examination of Brexit to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the decision to ‘Leave’, we have arguably the most definitive analysis of the BBC in the form of a book of letters by the great and the good to Matt Brittin our new DG, we have a charming children’s poetry book, a political discourse on Conservatism, and a couple of cracking business books to fire you up and help you run your company.
Plus our recommendations of some books we think will go perfectly with suncream and sand. A spoof comedy by Geoffrey Wadhurst, a quizzical look at modern art by Alex Murray, and two walking guides – Morse’s Oxford, and Norfolk.
But don’t forget to keep an eye on our BOOKSHOP as there may be something else there we’ve not included in our Newsletter.
SEE: https://bite-sizedbooks.com/shop/
Happy reading!
NEW BOOKS
Written by Farrukh Dhondy, Illustrations by Kate Parkin. This is a truly charming tale. And a book that we’re already looking at for animation potential. Sort of ageless – but probably best for 6 to 9 year olds.
Here’s Farrukh’s back cover copy…
Can a domestic cat and a wild fox ever be friends? Can a little naughtiness go some way to establish a real kindness? Does one good turn deserve another? Even if the person doing the good turn doesn’t know that he or she is doing it?
This story of Izzy the pet cat, Hyghly the wily city fox, Ekxept, the wicked, wild feline and Grouchy Grimm, Izzy’s grumpy owner, asks all these questions and maybe even answers them. But does it?
The story of these four is told in a sequence of sonnets and vivid pictures which bring the verses to life. Read, think, answer?
Here’s a snippet…
Hyghly was a handsome and wily fox,
Who lived in a den by the railway tracks.
His tail was neatly braided in dread-locks
And his brownish fur was as smooth as wax.
Izzy was a very busy pet cat,
Who spent most of her time on chairs snoozing
While she was not chasing a mouse or rat,
Which vocation she found quite amusing
Every night, Hyghly would prowl London’s streets
Searching for scraps by foraging in bins,
Looking for left overs and tasty treats
Like lamb-chop bones and even chicken skins.
Because one night one said that she saw him
Riding in the sky on a red lizard.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/bdfzrefc
LETTERS TO MATT BRITTIN
Edited by John Mair and Andrew Beck
Matt Brittin is the new Director-General of the BBC. A wide variety of friends, enemies, and neutral observers offer him advice.
The BBC’s new charter starts in 2028. Matt took office in May 2026 and became the Corporation’s eighteenth director-general. He has a very full in-tray. Can he save the BBC from what seems to be a permanent state of existential crisis? 2025 was a horrible year with crisis after crisis. The BBC needs to recover from that.
Everyone has an opinion on the BBC. The editors have sought the views of wide range of opinion-formers: Director-Generals, senior broadcast executives, friendly critics, media professors, media journalists, and more.
THE EDITORS
This is John Mair’s 66th edited book. Most of them have been about the media. Six of them have been about the BBC. He is a former BBC Current Affairs producer and university lecturer.
Andrew Beck is an author, adviser, and editor. This is the tenth book he has edited with John Mair.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/5dn65w44
BREXIT – THE FACTS STRIKE BACK
BREXIT – THE FACTS STRIKE BACK
Edited by Robert Tombs and Graham Gudgin with Catherine McBride OBE, Wilf Glasby, and Nick Busvine
There has been a ten-year campaign, still continuing, to persuade the British public that they made the wrong decision in 2016, and that they should have listened to those politicians, intellectuals and ‘experts’ who told them to vote Remain. Yet much of what we have been told, and are still being told, has no basis in evidence, and it is often provably wrong. Resolving the biggest political issue of our time needs facts, not propaganda, and this book gives them.
Almost exactly ten years after the June 2016 referendum, Brexit and its consequences again dominate British politics.
These ten years have seen the country divided and its political system tested almost to destruction. The public debates have often been based on assertions and arguments that are highly technical, especially those concerning economics and trade. Has Brexit made us poorer, and do we therefore need to return to the EU fold, as the present government and its supporters insist? Or is it the policies of successive governments that are responsible for our economic handicaps?
The contributors are members of Briefings for Britain a volunteer group that has been supplying information to the public since 2017. See: (https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk),
Catherine McBride OBE is a professional trade economist, Wilf Glasby is a professional economist working in the private sector, Nick Busvine OBE is a former diplomat, co-editors Robert Tombs and Graham Gudgin CBE are respectively a historian and an economist at Cambridge.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/5bzkjj5h
INDIA AT 75 – THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
Edited by Makhan Singh, Steven McCabe and Beverley Nielsen
Following India’s birth as an independent nation, when the country experienced the trauma of the largest migration of human beings in history resulting in up to two million deaths, the country’s leaders were faced with an immense challenge.
In the 75 years since independence on 15th August 1947, India has remained sovereign, democratic, free and diverse, making phenomenal progress in developing a thriving country in which citizens and its diaspora derive pride and continuing inspiration.
This book presents a wide range of accounts, primarily written by academics from the UK and India, giving personal insights into the economic, social, cultural and technological progress in India since independence. This includes business and innovation, automotive, health and midwifery, culture, fashion, music and cinema, farming, railways, economics and the technological revolution, space industry, Indian Muslims, and perspectives on the future.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/mwcxtdkk
BREXIT – Who’s Right? The New Case for Conservatism – JOHN REDWOOD
The great centre right parties on the European continent that alternated with the socialists in government 1945-2000 have largely been marginalised, replaced by populist parties. The US Republican party has been taken over by the Maga movement, with its populist and America first policies. In the UK the Conservative party lost massive support for wrong turnings on migration, public spending and taxation. The new Conservative party has shown how it has changed as it competes with three populist challengers, Reform, Restore and Advance.
In Europe winning populist parties have often themselves lost office when they fail to control borders and tame the state. In Italy Forza, Five Star and Lega have all risen and disappointed. Populists are often part right, part socialist. They offer the popular soundbites, shift with the latest poll and find it is all more difficult than they thought if they get to taste power.
This book asks Is President Trump conservative? Aren’t populist parties living a contradiction with their mixed philosophies? What is true Conservatism? The author explains how a blend of principles and pragmatism underpin conservatism. Conservatives believe in freedom, free enterprise and the rule of law. With the right mix government can allow prosperity and freedom to flourish whilst helping those in need and controlling the borders of a democratic nation.
John Redwood writes a daily blog www.johnredwoodsdiary.com, has published widely on economics and politics, has chaired industrial companies, is a Distinguished fellow of All Souls College Oxford, a Chartered fellow of CISI, and is a member of the House of Lords. He has been an MP, Chief Policy Adviser to Margaret Thatcher and a cabinet Minister.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/3bjffbj4
SHARKS AND DOLPHINS
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING PRIVATE/PUBLIC SECTOR PARTNERING
If you’re negotiating a contract in the public sector – this is the book you’ll need.
The public sector spends some £450 billion annually on buying goods and services from the private sector and yet too often mutual distrust and cultural differences impede fruitful joint working because of their failure to understand each other. In this practical guide the authors argue that while the two sectors are stereotypically seen as dolphins (public sector) and sharks (private sector) causing mutual suspicion these barriers can be broken down once the two sides learn about each other’s characteristics and culture.
The authors describe how to change these perceptions at an individual level by appropriate interaction, dolphin to dolphin, shark to shark. They reveal how the two sectors can appreciate and even copy each other’s strengths, the private sector acquiring more dolphins and the public sector in turn more sharks, building a long-lasting relationship of equals that can help deliver better public services.
Michael Burton has spent over 30 years as a commentator, editor and author working for a private company covering the public sector. He is the author of The Politics of Public Sector Reform from Thatcher to the Coalition (2013) The Politics of Austerity: A Recent History(2016) and From Broke to Brexit: Britain’s Lost Decade (2022). He was for 20 years editor ofThe MJ (Municipal Journal) the market-leading weekly title for UK local government and a board director of The MJ’s parent publishing and events company.
Richard Smith is a former professor and private sector executive who then worked for a local authority leading its in-house workforce in a successful competitive tender against private contractors. It was this experience which later led him to create Public Sector plc, a concept based on ‘relational partnering,’ a multi-million pound public-private property business. He is founder of the Centre for Partnering which promotes the value of partnering through a relational framework to deliver enhanced social and public value to communities.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/hzs9mubp
ONES FOR THE BEACH
ALEX MURRAY – MODERN ART FOR THE MODERN HOME
Alex writes…Whenever I am confronted – yes, that’s the word – by a piece of contemporary art these days I find myself almost invariably baffled by its bald, dead-pan assertiveness, from which the same invariable questions are raised: Is it me or the artist who’s the philistine here, and can anything be art or can art be anything?
When artists produce plain white canvases and argue that the canvas itself is the art, or a string of bunting as a commentary on communication, or a slab of bricks as something to be ‘experienced’ – and in many cases are paid millions for their solipsistic enquiries – what should the viewer’s response be? Are we, the great unwashed as the art world would have it, obliged to join in the artist’s game of smoke and mirrors and ponder something whose purpose is unintelligible and whose presentation as art verges on the impertinent?
Or do we laugh, as I have chosen to do in this novel, which uses the thoughts and encounters of its characters to interrogate art on everyday life’s own terms, in the vulgate so to speak, not in the unintelligible jargon favoured by its promoters. It’s a novel that takes modern art for a merry spin to see which bits fall out in an attempt to test its conceits to destruction.
There’s a lot to laugh about in a world where art has become increasingly ‘minimal’ and ‘conceptual’. But after all, it’s only art. Or is it, this voice to our confusions, questions, fears, aspirations, imaginings, wonderment, joys and sorrows? That’s a very big ‘only’.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/3xk9chm4
The Wadhurst Way – Pearls of Biz-dom from the Mouth of St. Albans’s Insight-tastic Executive Coach
“Founding a start-up,” said LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman, “is like throwing yourself off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down.” If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate the highs and lows of entrepreneurial life, you can do no better for a guide than executive coach and globally renowned blogger Geoffrey Wadhurst. Join him on his journey as he hurtles towards the ground, building his business as he goes. Start-up insights from Geoffrey’s journey include:
How to get the best out of networking breakfasts
The key to growing your business through social media
How to leverage a “virtual team” of co-workers from bank managers, social media coaches, private wealth managers and PR consultants
How to work on your business not in it (or was it the other way around?)
Learn from Geoffrey the importance of putting on your own oxygen mask first. Glean his valuable insights into how to sustain an elite level of performance at the C-Suite level. The Wadhurst Way is an indispensable guide to achieving start-up success!
An experienced HR manager turned entrepreneur and coach to the C-Suite, Geoffrey has built a global reputation for his leadership insights, first shared with the world through his blogs for The Guardian and the Huffington Post. Based in St Albans, Hertfordshire – the County of Opportunity – he is a frequent fixture at local networking breakfasts and business expos. He is married to wife Sandra and has one son, Ollie. In the digital world, he is an enthusiastic LinkedIn open networker – connect with him at linkedin.com/in/geoffreywadhurst; he is also an avid tweeter and you can follow him on @GWadhurst – he’ll follow you back.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/58pez6nk
MORSE
THE SOUVENIR GUIDE TO MORSE, LEWIS, ENDEAVOUR, AND OXFORD
It has been 39 years since Inspector Morse first burst onto TV screens worldwide in 1987. 2023 was the end of the road with the last series of Endeavour on ITV. That took the number of episodes of Morse, Lewis and Endeavour to over 100. It has been a worldwide hit.
This comprehensive souvenir guide gives you, the reader, tours of the Morse TV filming locations plus a guide to the mind of Morse and his creator Colin Dexter. It offers an appraisal of Morse the detective from those who served in and led the police in Oxford and much more.
It is full of width, depth and analysis and an Oxford bestseller since its first publication in 2021. A must for any Morse fan.
The Editors
John Mair has lived in Oxford for thirty years and is the editor of over 65 books in the last decade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mair_(journalist)
Chris Andrews has photographed Oxford and published books about the City for over 40 years. www.cap-ox.com
Heidi Boon Rickard is a freelance Tour Guide and Tour Manager and runs Walking Tours of Oxford. www.walkingtoursofoxford.com
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/38abx89u
A PRAYER AND A PINT – CHURCHES AND PUBS OF THE WAVERNEY VALLEY
About ten years ago, Janet and I planned a tour of the Waveney Valley, from its source at Redgrave to the sea at Gorleston, aiming to create a tourist guide to highlight the area’s hidden gems. It’s been our most exciting and enjoyable project, and we hope readers will share in the pleasure of exploring the region, especially its historic churches and pubs.
Author Christopher Reeve, born in Bungay in 1946, studied at St. Andrew’s University, Scotland, earning an M.Theol. (Hons). He worked at Bury St. Edmunds Museum, eventually becoming Keeper of Fine & Decorative Arts. In 2000, he joined Waveney District Council as Community Project Officer for Bungay, where he met Janet Peachey, his counterpart in Beccles. They’ve remained close friends since. In retirement, Christopher has become a prolific author, focusing on Bungay and East Anglian history. His works include Paranormal Suffolk (2009), Norwich: The Biography (2012), and The Literary Heritage of East Anglia (2025).
Photographer Janet Peachey, educated in Diss, holds a BA in Geography and a Certificate in Landscape History & Archaeology. She began amateur photography while working for the Norfolk Rural Community Council, using images to support her reports. She met Christopher in 2008 while working as a Rural Project Officer in Beccles. Their shared passion for community, history, and landscape sparked a lasting friendship and creative collaboration.
BUY ON AMAZON – https://tinyurl.com/mryarfuf